Blackberries for Southern Nevada

Q. I received a Thornless Blackberry plant as a gift from an online nursery. Can I grow this blackberry bush in our yard? We have lots of rabbits and birds visiting all the time.

Blackberries growing in NLV Nevada at the University Orchard. This was either Rosborough or Womack. They are very similar.

A. I have grown blackberries in the Las Vegas Valley. Some varieties of blackberries perform better in the Eastern Mojave Desert than others. Some varieties struggle with poor growth and scorched leaves in our climate and soils while others don’t have the same issues.

Either Rosborough or Womack at the University Orchard.

            You don’t mention which variety you have, but I had success with 'Womack' and 'Rosborough' varieties out of the Texas A&M breeding program but not 'Brazos' which came out of the same program and was successful in Florida. I have had poor luck growing any varieties coming from the Arkansas breeding program. They mostly have Native American names like 'Arapaho', 'Apache', 'Comanche', etc.

Rosborough or Womack blackberry at the University Orchard in NLV, Nevada.

Aside

Blackberries are divided into trailing, semi-erect or erect types. These blackberries were semi erect so I had a wire trellis for them mostly to keep them upright. Blackberries can also be divided into thornless or ouch. Mine were ouch! They definitely had thorns. I learned to prune them soon after harvest because it was difficult to figure out which ones had berries that year (floricanes) and which ones I needed to leave for next years production (primocanes). The canes would grow a little over five feet tall and they were flooded in a sunken irrigated bed with bubblers. After I left, the Orchard manager tried to pull them out but there were still some root remnants in there a few years after I left.

            Don’t expect the same quality berry as you might get from the Pacific Northwest and they don’t keep as long in our desert heat of May. Blackberries will be ready to pick in one day rather than two or three days as they are in cooler climates. This means, like figs, you must check blackberries every day when they are close to mature.  

Womack blackberry at the University Orchard probably close to May, 2004

            I would grow blackberries as a novelty but don’t expect miracles. Amend the soil with good compost at planting time and water regularly. 

Cooperative Extension at Arizona State University prepared an online fact sheet on blackberries from some research done in Yuma, Arizona.